Now that's what I call..

.. a Family Portrait.

My Mum's parent's wedding picture. Joe Tommy warren married Leonora Edna Jewels on July 28th 1916.

He was a local school teacher who had been drafted to the war.

This is a page from the Penberth / 2K's album I did for my brother's 60th.

Linking in..

.. to Karen's photo challenge...here ... looking out a family portrait in my Picasa gallery...wonder what I'll find. It's near on impossible to get one of us all together and lots I've posted before..





b4 photoshop!

...this one is a jumble of fun though, not really very well organised (and Jordan had to photoshop the legs behind out), but is of my Col and all but one of the kids. Lisa complained when I used a similar one as screen saver, or was it a desktop.. well, to be fair Jordan tried photoshopping her into it, but as the pic was of her lying on a bed, it was very funny... okay, so you had to be there!

I realised this week that I haven't scrapbooked any photos from our original Maldives trip, when all the kids came, maybe as the pics aren't digital and to be honest, not as nice.. but I should do some..

Sunny Saturday..?



Yeah, worse than this..



Every time I see the MSN homepage this last few days it has been bleating on about the 27 degrees we're all going to have this weekend, 'break out the barbecues', 'dust down the deckchairs'.... yeah right..

... real wet (and I mean wet) mizzle / drizzle stuff here..so what is the great thing about the south west micro climate again?

Different strokes..

Col's away for a few days and the house is different without him! Jordan always says so, but this time the difference is palpable. Guess maybe we've been hanging out together quite a bit lately, what with JB and Ross working anti-social hours, Kate being at that teen stage and Zac being away, that one extra person out of the routine is certainly noticed.

I'm not sure if it's the lack of 'Air Crash Investigation' coming from the sitting room, the lack of chores being done between work and tea time or just the lack of him being about the place. Everyone seems so much quieter and we lack the kind of central conversation.. and there was me thinking that I was the one who was always in the middle.... or is that another thing altogether?

So... I should be sorting some stuff and getting stuck into some of the monthly challenge layouts (I owe since about May!) but thought first I'd put fingers to keyboard and also catch up with some emails... yes, Michele, you're first on the list!

Definitely an autumn feel about the place, almost time for a fire in the evenings and new series of Spooks on telly.... the perfect autumn fix... looking for a picture I thought I'd share this one Uncle Bill took of Mousehole last week, kind of atmospheric indeed!

Lots of eating done too!

In fact I'm not sure we did much else! 



Old Coastguard Hotel.. not a squint or closed eye in sight.. Result!



Another of JB's cakes!



Another day, another Dolphin meal!




Yes, home catering too!



Before it rained on us!





And never leave a Newlyn Ice Cream off the itinerary!

Weary..(Contd.)

..love Zac..

.. but for good reason.. it was a great weekend, so much socialising, eating and doing... a great family time, not everyone together all the time, but everyone had their time.  The kids were working and doing their own thing some of the time and even Zac made his entrance, well flowers in lieu of his presence! 

Well 3 days later I am finishing this entry, it's been a hectic week but lovely overflow from last weekend, and I owe some pictures..perhaps I should just shut up now and give them to you.. this is Uncle Bill's story board for the present shopping!






Job Done..Thumbs Up!
(and did you know my boyfriend has a belt to match
 his boxers and his hat logo!)



..just what Bill had in mind...



  



51 is the new 50 . . ?

Whilst I can hardly say my 50th birthday went past unnoticed the fact that Zac and I spent half the day on trains to and from Cardiff meant we had a kind of wearied celebration on our return. Col and I went away later in the year but I have always kind of felt like I should have marked the passing of 50 years with a more family gathering kind of occasion.


Well as those of you who really know me can vouch, I am not an early kind of person and perhaps in this case a whole year behind!  A few weeks ago Colin's Uncle Bill said he was going to be in the country and hoped to come visit, and sure enough it was over my birthday weekend!  I didn't make much of a deal of it, kept it kind of low-key and amazingly the last few days have been the perfect kind of family weekend. . a kind of Cornish equivalent to an Indian wedding I reckon!


Lisa and her family were going to a wedding so they came by Thurs eve, introduced their latest addition and generally hung out . . I had some great gifts, books and DVD and also a trip to see the Vagina Monolgues with two of my girls. . our first family girlie event really ... my they are all growing up. . proper presents and everything..love you xxxx


Well last eve Col's brother and co. came down to see Uncle Bill and we had a big curry night. . Iwas aided and abetted by Ross' April who has recently had the Jones family 'baptism of fire' and appears to have come through unsinged... though onion chopping brought a tear to her eyes!   Then we had cake from JB and I got a clutch of great pressies. . a set of luggage? No, it was a very cool black craft baggage set and inside some great papers, letters and plenty of inspiration. . it seems Uncle Bill took pics through the whole purchasing event so there's a layout or two in just that. . .. and as they say it is the day to day moments you scrap whch make it so special.

Bedtime, late on at 2am was also a nice surprise.. go on.. guess.. No!... My Col bought me Samsung tablet and I wrote this entry on it.... while listening to the Top 30 from September 1973.. everything from 'All the Way to Memphis' and 'You Can Do Magic' !! (a momentous year, my last summer in Penberth and 13 years old, a real right of passage..

(mmm, Mandy, looks like I'm a lucky little Princess too!)

..no doubt Uncle Bill has pics of this event to follow!

PS Most amusing gift.. a plaque from Jordan...

'Remember, as far as anyone knows.. we are a Normal Family'

PPS Have had great calls from Zac too, sounds like he's having a great settling in time, and we'll see him soon.. if all the excitment of the Boat Show, ship visits and paintballing allow!

Changes..

.. was always a favourite song of mine from David Bowie's Hunky Dory album, I think in 1973.   My pal Teddy had it and I heard it a lot that summer before Mum and I left Penberth for the 'city of 2,000 people and streetlights', this being Phil's description of Mousehole when he sold it to me alongside a teenage life with him as a step-dad! 

Needless to say, that and a bus to town every 15 minutes, rather than every 4 hours as was the case 'out Buryan way' had me singing from the same hymn-sheet. (And that in itself reminds me of my favourite poignant service for Rogation-tide, Sunday of the Sea which we had always travelled to Mousehole to celebrate with Phil and his first wife Sally, many times when I was a kid and even when Dad was alive.. they knew each other from local fishing and sometimes tied boats gunnel to gunnel and shared an 'out-sea' croust break)

Anyways, as those who really know me will be thinking.. I digress... changes.. well it's all change here this week.   JB started college today, a mixture of trepidation at new beginings (not something she or I relish until it's done!) and pleasure at not being restricted by uniform and unpopular subjects.

Kate returns to school for her GCSE years tomorrow.. hopefully dance and childcare will make the basic subjects a little more bearable.  Where either of them will finally settle will be one fo those unknowns until , we hope, someday things just click!

Even Lilly has had a hair trim and new shoes and coat, looking all the more like the cutest thing from TV's 'Outnumbered' as she moves on to part time school.

Zac, well his life is more or less settled now til 2016...that sounds forever doesn't it.. well he spent his 19th birthday settling into Maritime College, training to be a cruise ship deck officer.   It's hard on all of us getting used to him not being around, so far it's like an extended weekend away, but somehow I think the 3 month trips at sea next year will be a little easier once we get used to him being 5 hours away.. 

I went to scrapbooking last Saturday, it was a nice way to spend the day after he had left.. so I payed small tribute to  recent weeks and made his summer of 2011 the picture theme for a beer mat mini-album.  I had mats originally in the shape of a cocktail glass but once primed they made the perfect fishy shape for what was a marine theme, so many pics this summer of fishing, boating, his holiday in Ibiza (where superyachts were more impressive that the all night clubs!) and then our last few days at home.. eating and drinking and just being us!



I think my favourite page..



Enigma.

Quote of the week goes to our Lilly aged 3.  Travelling home from Tesco, we passed a girl who looked a bit like Kate, just a younger version, with her friend, on the street walking along.

'I just saw a small Kate' said Lilly.

'A small Kate' I asked?

'Yes, I think it was looking for it's Mum and Dad' said Lilly.

Got me thinking.. teenagers.. a law unto themselves and sometimes in a seemingly parallel existence, all of their own.. not a kid, not a baby, not an adult.. just an entity...... 'a Kate'

.. love them both to bits!

18 years, 11 months..

..and 362 days later, we have launched our Zac-Man into the world. He has been a joy, like a sponge, learning and trying, testing and practicing, everything he needs to set off .. and taking a little credit we think he's more than ready!  Off to visit his first cruise ship tomorrow and follow it with uniform allocation and then, on his 19th birthday, starting his 5 year commitment to be a Deck Officer on a cruise ship.

(Hell, and they're paying him to do it...) His tutor at college says she will be telling everyone to read the newsletters and listen to the bulletins as that's where the course and Warsash open day was first brought to Zac's attention. Since then it's been a whirlwind of applications, interviews, VISA forms and medicals, but the days are finally done and we hope he had a good send off.... not least of all with plenty of ironed tee-shirts in case he doesn't get around to the washing before he comes home for a weekend in a while!

The other night he took over the ironing, it was harder for me to watch (the control freak that I am), he had the board (in my mind) back to front and the shirts upside down.. but then I realised I was watching a left handed ironer.. and a perfectionist Virgo to boot! But he did good..!

Last night we had a minor family gathering, take away, one of JB's fabulous cakes and a few stories and later on made the most of a nice fire out on the decking....

I have scrapbooking tomorrow and am nowhere near ready, just going to grab the bags from last month and hope!  It's a beermat mini-album and I think I'm going to do some of this summer's 'best bits', so that should be fairly easy to organise.. if I can find the gesso.. before bed.. to prep the mats.. now, where is Jordan??